While respected for his tenacity as a fighter, General Patrick R. Cleburne, of the Army of Tennessee, made headlines for a proposal he made to help the Confederate cause. Realizing the war was lost unless changes were made, Cleburne proposed to his fellow generals that the Confederacy should consider freeing Southern slaves in exchange for them fighting for the Confederate cause. Cleburne was an Irish immigrant who made Arkansas his adopted home state. Identifying with the south, Cleburne cast his lot with the fledgling Confederacy. From the start of the war, Cleburne rose from a private to a major general over a division in the Army of Tennessee. After 1862, Cleburne was a veteran of battles of Perryville, Shiloh, Stones River, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, Tunnel Hill and Ringgold Gap. Cleburnes division was easily identified on the battlefield by their unique full moon on a field of blue battle flag. His division was considered the best in the Army of Tennessee and renowned as the best fighters. Cleburnes military success earned him the nickname of Stonewall of the West. By late 1863 and early 1864, Cleburne came to the conclusion that the Confederacy would lose the war unless a drastic change was made. There was no way the South could compete with the population advantage the North had over the Confederate states. The Civil War would turn into a war of attrition with the North ultimately winning due to the Souths population shortage. On Jan. 2, 1864, Cleburne proposed during an officers meeting that the South should free any slave willing to fight for the Confederacy. Cleburnes proposal made sense. The Confederate army was about a third of the size of the Union army. While the Confederate army had won a series of stirring victories, they could not continue winning such victories at a high cost of casualties. While the North could replace fallen soldiers from a huge population base, the South could not. The fact that a well-respected general in the Confederate army was making this proposal was a change from the occasional journalist or politician making a similar proposal. After Vicksburg fell, The Jackson Mississippian opined, We must either employ the negroes ourselves, or the enemy will employ them against us. It came after Cleburnes death. And, too late to save the South from Tyranny. But, a little known fact is: the South was emancipating slaves BEFORE the war was over. Thanks, in large to the plan Cleburne put into motion.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 15:19:37 +0000
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